Yesterday Yuri, ED of WMUA (and my college in FDC) was interviewed in the main morning program on Swedish Radio re the ua.wp contra ru:wp in Ukraine and of Kazak WIkipedia The 8 minutes report is half in Swedish and half in English so a bit hard to listen to [1] The most interesting parts are *The Kazak dictator is making all academics in this country to update the Kazan version of Wikipedia, perhaps to get it POV but mostly so they will not be dependent of ru:wp, ie he sees it as a must to have a decent Wikipedia version in order to be independent of the culture from Russia *In Ukraine the former education minister (pro eu and pro Ukrainian language) actively promoted the ua:wp so not be dependent on ru:wp. The current minister have the opposite idea and has made Russian an official second language in the eastern part of Ukraine *It seems the university students make it as almost a political choice if to use ua:wp or ru:wp, and then in western Ukraine choose ua:wp The central role of Wikipedia in theses vital political issues I have not heard of from our ordinary "western" chapters/language versions (or is catalonian/Amical an example) And reflecting on this, I also think, even if independent, of the dramatic increase of use of arabic and indonesian wikipedia [2] . Also of Vietnamese wikipedia which has a tremendous increase in number of article by intellegent use of bots. Also of the very interesting development in India, with their many different language versions. We here very little (nothing?) from these interesting developments, where we all probably can have a lot to learn Asaf talks of the problem of getting Global South started as there are very weak/missing wp communities. But are we as a movement doing enough to support the active communities and developments in the Global East? (I can not help also think of Sues words re elections within the movement. Do these processes conserve our existing dominance in Board and groups of representatives coming from western world?) Anders [1]

[2] http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesPageViewsMonthlyCombined.htmtic increase of use of arabic wikipedia _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>

Hoi, Every Wikipedia has its own point of view. They are all not neutral if only by omission. Do consider the amount of effort that has gone in the creation of articles relating to the United States of America,. Compare this with the coverage of the Ottoman Empire, given that the English Wikipedia is used all over the world, its coverage should be of a higher standard. The Ottoman Empire represents one of the more relevant civilisations, now consider all the countries who are considered to be less relevant... Thanks, GerardM On 14 October 2013 14:57, Fred Bauder &lt;fredbaud(a)fairpoint.net&gt; wrote: > A nationalist point of view is not neutral point of view. I can imagine > what the dictator of Kazakstan considers a suitable article. > > Fred > > > Yesterday Yuri, ED of WMUA (and my college in FDC) was interviewed in > > the main morning program on Swedish Radio re the ua.wp contra ru:wp > in > > Ukraine and of Kazak WIkipedia > > > > The 8 minutes report is half in Swedish and half in English so a bit > > hard to listen to [1] > > > > The most interesting parts are > > *The Kazak dictator is making all academics in this country to update > > the Kazan version of Wikipedia, perhaps to get it POV but mostly so > they > > will not be dependent of ru:wp, ie he sees it as a must to have a > decent > > Wikipedia version in order to be independent of the culture from > Russia > > *In Ukraine the former education minister (pro eu and pro Ukrainian > > language) actively promoted the ua:wp so not be dependent on ru:wp. > The > > current minister have the opposite idea and has made Russian an > > official second language in the eastern part of Ukraine > > *It seems the university students make it as almost a political > choice > > if to use ua:wp or ru:wp, and then in western Ukraine choose ua:wp > > > > The central role of Wikipedia in theses vital political issues I have > > not heard of from our ordinary "western" chapters/language versions > (or > > is catalonian/Amical an example) > > > > And reflecting on this, I also think, even if independent, of the > > dramatic increase of use of arabic and indonesian wikipedia [2] . > Also > > of Vietnamese wikipedia which has a tremendous increase in number of > > article by intellegent use of bots. Also of the very interesting > > development in India, with their many different language versions. > > > > We here very little (nothing?) from these interesting developments, > > where we all probably can have a lot to learn > > > > Asaf talks of the problem of getting Global South started as there > are > > very weak/missing wp communities. But are we as a movement doing > enough > > to support the active communities and developments in the Global > East? > > (I can not help also think of Sues words re elections within the > > movement. Do these processes conserve our existing dominance in Board > > and groups of representatives coming from western world?) > > > > Anders > > > > > > [1] > > >